U.S names nigerian as head of genetic research centre
Maryland (USA) - The United State government has named a Nigerian-born researcher, Dr. Dr. Charles N. Rotimi, as the first director of its new medical research centre for genomics and health disparities.
Dr. Charles N. Rotimi is a graduate of the University of Benin, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry in 1979, before traveling to the U.S. to earn a master’s degree in epidemiology at the University of Mississippi, 1983, and a second master’s degree in Public Health (M.P.H.) from the University of Alabama, at Birmingham, in 1988. In 1991, Rotimi completed a Ph.D. in Epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Describing him as the “internationally renowned genetic epidemiologist”, a U.S. government statement announced Dr. Rotimi as the new director of the new centre located in the state of Maryland in the U.S., where Rotimi is also based.
The historic announcement which was received with much enthusiasm in the growing community of Nigerian, African academics and intellectuals here in the U.S. was made last week by the U.S. government-owned National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The statement said the centre would be known as the NIH Intramural Centre for Genomics and Health Disparities (NICGHD) and would be a “venue for research about the way populations are impacted by diseases, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension.”
NIH is the U.S. government’s major medical research agency with 27 institutes and centres. It is part of the U.S. government’s Department of Health and Human Services, equivalent of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health.
Under Rotimi’s leadership, the new centre is also expected to provide “training opportunities for students and established scientists from developing countries and from minority groups in the United States.
With over 80 published papers, Rotimi is known as a leader, globally, in his specialist area of genetic research. In 1992, a year after his Ph.D. he became Assistant Professor at the Loyola University in Chicago, where he later rose to Associate Professor and in 1996, the U.S. government recognised him and appointed him a Grant Reviewer at the NIH, where he rose to become a Senior Investigator and the Acting Director four years ago.
Rotimi’s rise in NIH coincided with his relocation from Loyola University to Howard University in Washington, DC, which borders Maryland immediately to the South. Howard is regarded as the best U.S. black controlled university. He became Director of Genetic Epidemiology at Howard in 1999 and a full professor at the same university in 2003.
Rotimi was elected Co-Chairman of the American Diabetic Association in 2001 and the President of the African Society of Human Genetics in 2004.
According to the U.S. government statement, “a key focus of Dr. Rotimi’s research is understanding the triangular relationship between obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, which together account for more than 80 per cent of the health disparity between African Americans and European Americans.”
It added that the genetic epidemiology models developed by Rotimi and his group are now “helping to address whether high disease rates are the result of exposure to environmental risk factors, genetic susceptibility, or an interaction between the two.”
Besides, Dr. Rotimi is currently “engaged in the first genome-wide scan of an African American cohort, with the goal of identifying genes associated with obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. More than 2,000 participants from multigenerational African American families are enrolled in this large-scale genetic epidemiology study.”
The new U.S. institute headed by Rotimi will employ a genomics approach, collecting and analysing genetic, clinical, life-style and socio-economic data to study a range of clinical conditions that have puzzled and troubled public health experts for decades.
“This new centre will be an NIH resource to help move research related to the complex factors underlying health disparities into the 21st century,” said NIH Director, Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.
“Synergy among the centre’s genetic and genomic researchers and disease experts in existing NIH research programmes will advance our understanding of health disparities for the benefit of minority groups and all Americans.”
Commenting, Rotimi said the priority of the new centre “will be to understand how we can use the tools of genomics to address some of the issues we see with health disparities.” He added that “the availability of tremendous expertise and the remarkable research infrastructure at NIH will make our research activities more robust and will allow us to tackle questions in ways that were not feasible in the past.”
Genomic research has shown that the genomes of any two individuals are very similar. However, the subtle genomic differences that remain, contribute to unique biological traits, such as hair and eye color, as well as to the susceptibility to diseases and individual responses to drugs. Additional factors contribute to health and disease, including diet, exercise routines and access to medical care. Genetic epidemiologists study genetic differences in combination with environmental factors to assess disease susceptibility and resistance among individuals and population groups.
Rotimi, according to the U.S. government statement, is extensively involved in a number of genetic epidemiology projects that are being conducted in several African countries, China, and in the United States.
These projects have included the Africa America Diabetes Mellitus Study; the Howard University Family Study; the Genetics of Obesity in Blacks Study; the Black Women Health Study; Consent in Genetic Research; An International Trial; the Engagement of African Communities for the International HapMap Project; and the Genetic Basis of Podoconiosis, a foot-disfiguring disease affecting some who work barefoot in volcanic soils.
“These efforts have provided him the necessary expertise for assuming the directorship of NICGHD.” the statement noted.
Source: The Guardian
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